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Saturday, August 12, 2017

Interview: Deliverance

French black/sludge metallers Deliverance recently released CHRST, which is already reviewed here by DutchMetalManiac's Henric van Essen. As you can read below, he also interviewed Deliverance's guitarist Etienne Sarthou.

Hello, how are you?

Fine, thank you!

Thanks for the opportunity to do this interview. You’re based at Ile-de-France, Paris, like many, many other bands. What is it about that particular piece of France that so many bands hail from there?

I'm not sure. I guess the fact that Paris is such a great cultural city helps a bit! A lot of good music comes from Paris and France in general this past years, it’s true.

Sludge and black metal are seemingly very far apart. Why did you decide to combine both in your music?

It just feels natural to mix those elements. I really wanted to keep what I like in black metal: the cold atmosphere, the epic structures, the dissonance and typical vocals, and to add the heaviness of sludge and post metal. But there's plenty of different stuff in music we love which have a direct impact on what we do.

I have been told your band name comes from the seventies cult movie ‘Deliverance’. Is this true? And if so, what is the connection between you and that movie?

I just love this movie! And I think there's something really dark and twisted in this movie that connects with our music.

Deliverance is not yet a well-known band. Can you tell us a little bit about its history and its members?

For the past 20 years, I've been playing drums with French metal act AqME. I also work quite a bit as a recording and mixing engineer. I met Pierre when I recorded his previous band Memories Of A Dead Man. I thought he had a perfect voice for a bunch of songs I had in mind. That's how it all began. We worked on our first EP called "Doomsday, Please" which we released only on vinyl. Then Sacha joined the band on bass (he's a famous French tattoo artist), as well as Fred on drums (Junior Rodriguez, BLVL...) and Julien (who also plays with me in AqME).

Congratulations with ‘CHRST’, I think it’s a very impressive album. How did the creative process leading to it take place?

Thank you, I'm really glad you like it! We took our time because we wanted to do a great first album. I actually had a double album in mind, but I realized it was a bit too much to swallow for the listener. And probably for us too. So we decided to focus on the best songs and the album became only stronger with just those six songs.

Who is or are the creative masterminds behind the music of Deliverance?

It’s Pierre and I. I write the music, Pierre writes the lyrics. Usually I work at home. When I feel that the song is good, we start playing it with the other guys and Pierre takes whatever time he needs to write lyrics and develop the concept behind the song.

Where do you get your inspiration for the music and lyrics?

Music wise, I listen to a lot of different kinds of music. From pop, rock, to the most extreme forms of metal. I'm obsessed with songwriting, which means that music needs to follow what I consider a logical and natural path. So as long as the music is well written according to my personal standards, it can have a direct impact on what I write. Lyrics wise, Pierre reads a lot of philosophy and literature, in which he finds a never-ending inspiration. Famous writer "Dostoievsky" have had a tremendous impact on Pierre and the concept behind CHRST.

One of the things that struck me when listening to ‘CHRST’ is the compelling, oppressing atmosphere it breaths. Is this a deliberate choice?

Yes definitely. But we need contrast to enhance this feeling of oppression. This is why we have many different atmospheres and "quiet" parts in this record. Heaviness becomes even heavier that way!

A release of this quality sets the standards and expectations very high for the future. How do you feel about that?

We're all really happy and proud of CHRST. I Still can't find anything I would change in this album. It gives us a big deal of confidence for our next record. We have a lot of great ideas we will develop in the near future, we actually already have worked on a bunch of really cool new songs.

Speaking of future, how do you see your future?

Concerts and records... Some more concerts and some more records! Deliverance is here to stay, we still have a lot to give.

Do you have touring plans? And if so, is Holland on the to-visit-list?

We have a bunch of concerts coming in France. But we definitely want to play abroad. Holland would be great of course!

Once again thanks for your time, is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?